7 Quick Takes Friday (set #183)

This week: Planned Parenthood’s Senior Medical Advisor is proud of their role supplying “fresh” baby organs in the 10th video to be released. The story of Sebastian Kaza’s death and his strong Catholic family. The Knights of Columbus release the results of a new poll. A young Franciscan friar starts a new video series. A TED talk on the history of the universe and a video on why so many scientists believe in God. Whole Foods co-founder shares his thoughts on capitalism.

— 1 —

Planned Parenthood’s Senior Medical Advisor Dr. Carolyn Westhoff, in the 10th video exposing just how evil they are, boasts about offering “fresh” babies’ organs to “generate a fair amount of income”. She goes on to note “we’ve just been working with people who want particular tissues, like, you know, they want cardiac, or they want eyes, or they want neural… Oh my God, gonads!”

TEN videos, hard to ignore or explain away. Incredible for top political leaders to claim they have not seen them.

The Knights of Columbus has published the results of a new survey. 90% of practicing Catholics say it is important to pray daily, follow the teachings of the Church, receive the sacraments and attend Mass. This is in stark contrast to the “non-practicing Catholics” where only 42% think Mass attendance is important. The National Catholic Register has the story.

Polls like this show our huge catechesis problem, even among the “practicing” Catholics. To be Catholic means (on questions asked in the poll) that we pray, fulfill our Mass obligation, accept 100% of the doctrinal teaching of the Church, receive the sacraments, believe the Eucharist is the true presence of Christ, go to confession in the very least yearly, hold that abortion is intrinsically evil, and understand there is no such thing as “same-sex marriage.” There is zero wiggle room on this. Taking any different position flat-out rejects the authority of Christ and His Church.

— 4 —

This (very!) young man, Brother Casey Cole is a Franciscan friar. He blogs at Breaking In The Habit and has started a video series on our faith and his vocation. I will feature these going forward as they are interesting for Catholics and non-Catholics alike:

— 5 —

I found this TED talk to be interesting. It’s claim is to tell the history of the universe in 18 minutes. While the presentation is completely secular, it shows how a long series of extremely unlikely coincidences led to the world as we know it [ — long series — extremely unlikely — ]. The hand of God is obvious, starting with the creation of something from nothing then everything that followed.

— 6 —

Speaking of science and God, this video from a not specifically religious source, explores “Why So Many Scientists Believe in God”. It’s not perfect, but we would agree with many of the points.

— 7 —

John Mackey is a co-founder of Whole Foods. In this recent video, he gives his thoughts on capitalism. You may be surprised.

Some random thoughts or bits of information are worthy of sharing but don’t warrant their own full post. This idea was begun by Jennifer Fulwiler and is now continued by Kelly Mantoan. So, some Fridays I too participate when I have accumulated 7 worthy items. Thank you Kelly for hosting this project!

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Enjoy this month’s edition of New Evangelists Monthly – an informal, dynamic, crowd-sourced “meta-magazine” showcasing the best posts faithful Catholic bloggers. In this and every issue, you will find many different, but faithfully Catholic viewpoints, insights and perspectives.

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